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Thursday, May 1, 2008

Last night, I finished reading Living on the Black, John
Feinstein's 500 page chronicle of the 2007 season focused on the
performances of Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine. The title, of course,
comes from way both cerebral pitchers have to pitch in order to get
major league hitters out.

After reading the introduction and the first few chapters, which
followed Mussina and Glavine as amateurs, up through the minors, and to
New York, I was really excited. The writing was crisp and clear, the
characters were beginning to take shape, and the arc of their careers
had been clearly laid out.

Feinstein's supposed goal involved exploring the "inside baseball" aspect of a pitcher's life.

What
do pitchers really do during the off-season- especially as they get
older- to prepare for spring training? What do they do while "throwing a
bullpen"?... How do pitchers and catchers relate to one another; what
in the world do pitching coaches really say when they jog to the
mound; and what does a pitcher, especially one who can't just rear back
throw 95-miles-an-hour fastballs, do to get hitters out? How do they
interact with umpires? Opposing hitters? The managers? Their wives?

After a 150 page primer, class had been called to order, and I was
prepared to sit at the feet of the master and learn. And then Feinstein
began writing about the 2007 season (for about 400 pages).